Mobile City Council to vote on $500,000 stormwater contract requiring tighter administrative controls

The city of Mobile, in partnership with Dog River Clearwater Revival Group, installed a pilot litter trap, pictured Wednesday Dec. 5, 2012, in Eslava Creek at Holcombe Avenue. The trap is part of compliance measures the city must meet with state environmental regulators. The Mobile City Council votes Tuesday on a contract with a private entity to monitor and administer its stormwater management plan. (File photo)

MOBILE, Alabama – A nearly $500,000 contract for a local
firm to oversee the implementation of a 93-page stormwater runoff and pollution
control plan will go before the Mobile City Council for consideration on
Tuesday.

The agreement with the Mobile Group Inc., the private
contractor that has long overseen previous plans for the city, aims to bring
the city into compliance with federal and state regulations on a variety of
issues including the administrative function of monitoring and recording the
program.

The council will also vote on a $37,500 pact with EnviroChem
Inc. to handle stormwater testing, also a requirement that state regulators are
requiring for Mobile.

Both contracts are part of the city's requirements with the
Alabama Department of Environmental Management to enforce federal Clean Water
Act regulations. The federal government requires cities to operate a stormwater
system with the appropriate permits and to update management plans to reduce
pollutants into rivers and streams from municipal drainage systems.

The issue has been pronounced in Mobile, city officials say,
because of the city's antiquated drainage system and a long public history of
doing a relatively poor job of controlling litter that washes into waterways.
For example, one of the city's largest watersheds – Dog River – has been
documented numerous times for being inundated with floating garbage after heavy
rains.

"What ADEM has gone through is a full-blown compliance plan
to address issues brought forth by the federal (Environmental Protection
Agency) with a document that has to be addressed on who will handle it and the
time tables on how it is handled," City Attorney Larry Wettermark said.

The contract, city officials say, is needed to address a
variety of benchmarks established in a civil lawsuit filed late last year by
ADEM. The lawsuit cited mostly administrative violations, such as failure to
file timely reports.

The Mobile Group's contract, if approved, would allocate
about 10 of their employees to do a host of monitoring and recording
assignments.

Bell said the recently established plan will already stretch
his staff to do more, such as requiring engineers to conduct more construction
site visits and detail locations for potential stormwater runoffs.

"I don't have enough people in engineering to visit 10 to 12
construction sites in Mobile," Bell said, referring to the extra requirements. "The
Mobile Group will do the visits to the sites. Public Works will clean up the
storm systems and keep the ditches in a manner (acceptable) to ADEM."

Bell said complying by the plan -- including identifying and
mapping storm drains, something which is expected to be a time-consuming job -- will
force his staff to juggle some responsibilities, and could lead to some
slowdowns in day-to-day job duties.

"Will it interfere with some of the normal tasks?" Bell
said. "More than likely it will. To what degree, I can't tell."

Failure to comply by the compliance plan, officials say, can
be costly.

Flo Kessler, a city attorney, said the state in December,
wanted the city to agree to pay a penalty for every day it fails to meet any of
the milestones established within the plan. Fines can be $100 per day, $200 per
day for each day after the first month of unattended violations, and $300 per
day after 60 days.

Fines cannot exceed $21,000, though if violations continue
after 120 days, the state can initiate contempt proceedings that could lead to
additional civil penalties, Kessler said.

"Not to approve the stormwater contract will most likely
result in steep penalties and the work, defined for us in a decree by EPA, will
still have to be done," Councilman Fred Richardson said.

He said he will vote for the Moblie Group's contract "unless
I'm convinced of a cheaper proven way, acceptable by EPA," that can satisfy the
permitting requirements.

Councilwoman Bess Rich said she supports a position by the a
nonprofit environmental group to delay the vote until meetings are held by
council members, city staff and ADEM's stormwater branch so the council better
understands the civil lawsuit.

That group, the Mobile Baykeeper, said a vote delay allows
more time for interested parties to learn more about the contract with Mobile
Group Inc. as well as the stormwater compliance plan.

Rich said no Public Services committee meeting has been
scheduled to further discuss it.